Spare yourself the tedium of reading this book - the front cover will suffice. The illustration shows a minute figure Stonehenged by skyscrapers. The dominating colour is brown, symbolic of stifling decay and social stagnation. Oh, but look! There's a little stripey hot air balloon awaiting take-off. Will the eponymous Jake break free from his miserable circumstances? Or will this bauble of hope pop? Er, yes and no.

Elizabeth Laird takes on ISSUES in her novels. THE KURDS in Children of the Dust (which I haven't read); DISABILITY in Red Sky in the Morning (which I have); and now Single Parent Families. Characterisation smacked of medieval morality plays, with stepdad in this SPF as the 'vice' figure and real-dad as the 'virtue'.

The plotting is utterly implausible too: real-dad unconvincingly turning up out of the blue and showering Jake with the Argos catalogue; grandmother turning the bailiffs away with Churchillian resolve and righteousness. The idea of Jake's tower is not sustained, nor is the potential friendship with Kieran.

Perhaps it was deliberate to limit the number of characters to create the claustrophobic feel which the cover illustration aims to convey, but these were characters that I never grew to know or particularly care about. And that's a TOWERING shame.

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